Is it flexibility you're looking for?

There are many reasons why people want to work from home and one of the most powerful motivations is the flexibility it gives you. When you're your own boss, you can choose when you earn and when you learn.

I've met a few virtual assistants recently who started their business because it will give them the flexibility to spent more time doing the things they really like - spending time with horses; studying to become a personal trainer; or studying for an alternative career.

If you're looking for an alternative career, why not consider I.T. There are many online training courses available which are affordable, offer flexibility which means you can learn whenever and wherever it suits you. And the area of IT is vast - so if you want to become a web developer, a support technician, computer programmer or an applications specialist, there are the right courses available for you.

The Learning Space is one such company which has a whole catalogue of training courses to suit any individual interested in any area of I.T. My particular favourite is Microsoft User Specialist.
With this course we can learn how to use Microsoft Office 2007 to its fullest and it comes with a whole host of resources which would be a dream to anybody who trains other in this field.

If you would like to learn more about the careers and courses available then fill in the form below and you will receive information by email.

This is an emailed joke but it made me smile ...

The European Commission has just announced that English will be the official language of the European Union. German, which was the other possibility, narrowly missed out.

During negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and accepted a 5-year phase-in plan that would become known as "Euro-English".

In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly this will make sivil servants jump with joy.

The hard "c" will be dropped in favor of "k". This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent "e" in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer pepl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v". During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou" and after zis fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensibl riten styl.

Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru. Und after zis fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German; lik zey vunted in ze forst plas.

Sky TV: Bad Customer Service Or Theft?

Sky TV steal £1000 (£2000) from a customer and refuse to give a refund. Why should these large companies be allowed to get away with blatant theft?

read more | digg story

Benefits to working from home (for others)

Our poor Sharon has been poorly the last few days with tonsilitis and it was during a conversation when we were trying to cheer her up that we came up with some unusual benefits to working from home:

1. You don't get to spread the germs around your work colleagues, so the rest of the team has no excuses and can still shift the work. (Where do these germs come from anyway?)
2. You can keep the bucket by your desk so you can puke while you carry on working.
3. You don't frighten other people because you look like Alice Cooper.

But the best story comes from Sharon:

"Well, put it this way, on a night out with friends when I got sick (and that was through alcohol) she phoned an ambulance as she thought I had alcoholic poisoning – well, it turned out to be that I’d had my face so far down toilet, it had got stained with blue Toilet Duck – I can still hear hospital laughing!"

I should probably add footnote here for any international readers who don't know what Toilet Duck is: leave a comment with her email address and I'll explain it to you.

Unscary new technology

How old is your mobile phone? It may sound a strange question, but my guess is that your phone isn’t more than 2 years old. And even if it was more than 2 years old, it would still have modern capability of sending and receiving a text message, perhaps be able to take a picture and maybe even have access to the internet.

Now do you have digital television? That could be either Freeview, Sky or cable TV. In a couple of years’ time we’re told that we will need to be switched over to digital or else we won’t be able to receive any television signals on even the main 5 channels so we’ll have no TV. I’m sure that with the cost of Freeview set top boxes falling at a daily rate that there are not many people out there who don’t yet have digital TV.

We’re constantly having new technology thrust upon us. We don’t always openly embrace the changes unless the benefits are clear cut and immediate. And when it comes to computers, or anything that’s linked to them, those changes are less likely to be embraced as it usually means learning a whole host of new skills.

Most manufacturers and service providers are aware that human beings, for the majority, don’t like change. We’re creatures of habit and we like our comfort zone. That’s why the modern digital TVs still have the same functions as the old analogue type, and mobile phones are, well, basically phones, with other bits and pieces stuck to them. If devices were made complicated, nobody would buy them.

So the same can be said for a new digital dictation device. Philips are still making a digital recorder with the slider control because that’s what people are used to. The main difference in the new technology is how the recordings are transferred to the secretary. Using internet technology means the secretary no longer need be in the same office as the author and a wider choice of people to complete the work is now available.

The digital revolution is well and truly underway. Just as the switch over to digital TV is taking place, the same is true for digital dictation systems. Dictaphone is just one company who are no longer manufacturing tape dictation machines and are choosing to manufacture digital recording devices only.

If you would like to learn more about digital dictation system and discover for yourself the benefits of Document Direct’s service please contact Jayne Smith on 0151 227 9150 or email jayne.smith@documentdirect.co.uk.